South Park: Stick of Truth is a fantastic accomplishment. It’s a rare licensed game that is just as good, if not better, than it’s source material. You’ll shake your head in disapproval all while laughing at the offensive situations that you’re faced against.
In the game, you are the new kid, the always silent protagonist. You start off by joining the Kingdom of the Kupa Keep (KKK) who are led by Grand Wizard Cartman. Once you join, the group immediately discovers the Stick of Truth, the ultimate power in the universe, has been stolen by the Elven Guild. It’s up to you with your faithful companion, Butters, to retrieve the Stick of Truth. Thus, your epic adventure begins.
The gameplay should be very familiar to fans of the Paper Mario/Mario and Luigi series. It’s a turn based RPG with timed attacks. If you time the button presses just right, you could have even more powerful combos. You also have control of special abilities that use PP (Hee-Hee).
Players have the ability to upgrade weapons, equipment, acquire new abilities and perks, even use add-ons and modifications to make themselves more powerful. Only everything is done with a South Park twist. Weapons and equipment look like something fashioned by fourth graders. You may find yourself battling aliens and Nazis with everyday items such as golf clubs, baseball bats, beach balls, hammers, lawn darts, and dildos. Some of the items that you may use are Cheesy Poofs for health, Tacos for revival, or even a dark roast coffee for speed. You may even choose to wear patches or even a strap on for cool elemental effects.
Even magic has it’s own unique twist. Magic comes from within you because it’s your farts. You have four unique fart spells to sneak past enemies, light them on fire or even destroy certain structures.
South Park provides many of the usual role-playing tropes, but it’s the uniqueness of the South Park universe that makes the game so fun. There’s never a dull moment as you battle aliens, Nazis, gingers hall monitors, infiltrate an abortion clinic, receive an anal probing, and even dodge your dad’s gigantic testicles while battling a gnome.
There are negatives that I need to mention. The game is short, really short, for a RPG. I finished in about 17 hours and that’s completing all of the sidequests except for one. The level cap is 15, which can be reached about three quarters of the way through the game. This doesn’t really provide any incentive for battling enemies near the end except for picking up items. The game also stutters on occasion, especially when you reach new areas.
But none of these negatives outweigh the tremendous positives in this game. The game looks fantastic, exactly like the show. There are tons of secret areas to discover and Chinpokemon to collect. The game is consistently funny throughout and very offensive. It’s easily the most offensive game I’ve ever played. Sorry Conker, you’ve lost the crown. South Park: Stick of Truth is just plain fun and certainly worth checking out. Especially for those looking for a good turn-based game minus, the tired clichéd look of a turn-based game.